Boris, have you ever watched a child with an Eating Disorder choose their food and then eat it when their mind monkeys are playing havoc.
It is excruciating, the internal dialogue playing out in their mind is depicted on their face, as a million intrusive, harming thoughts permeate their brain and scream at them to eat little, control more, and lose some more goddamn weight.
I’ve been watching this conversation play day after day in my daughter, where the solution often lays in an argument and tears. Can you imagine crying most days when you are 16, because of food.
We have been battling as a family, because whilst anorexia is unrelentess on the soul it chooses, it is also pretty brutal on everyone in the house. But, we have been battling, and some days winning.
Eating out 4 months ago caused my child to scream in frustration in the middle of crowded restaurant, but recently was becoming an accepted part of family life.
Sure, we have avoided some places, like Wetherspoons and McDonalds, as the screaming calories on the menu act as a trigger, but most other places are fine.
(Strange though – Wetherspoons and McDonalds – not direct shining stars of healthy living leading the way in calories on menus and yet both still posting profits…..)
But not anymore.
Not since the UK government decided to combat the “obesity” crisis and declare the calorific value of every meal on a menu.
Because fat is wrong – and slim is right?
And calories are the solution to that?
Sorry Boris, but no.
Health is wealth as they say – a healthy lifestyle, mixed with exercise, mobility, non processed foods, a gym membership, walking over driving.
Why are you, Boris, not using your power to bellow this from the roof tops.
Why instead are we investing in stating that adults need around 2000 calories a day on every menu we pick up. Why does my 5 foot 2 size 10 female friend, need the same calories as her 6ft 5 rugby playing husband?
Maybe adults will see the stupidity of that, my 16 year old child with an eating disorder may not.
I don’t understand how calories on a menu fights obesity. My fitness Pal has been around for decades and can be used by all who want to know.
I do understand how calories on a menu sets back a kid who is literally fighting daily to live a normal life, to balance her mental health and restore a relationship with food.
Because I watch it, daily.
I think if you had watched it too, you may have poured more consideration into this choice.
Calories are not indicative of the health of a food, my breakfast smoothie this morning was rich in protein, oats, banana and peanut butter and came in at 500 calories, my youngest childs’ bowl of CoCo pops rocked in at 200 calories.
” A study by Dr Joel Ray, a physician-researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto found that patietns of all ages with a BMI of 18.5 or less (i.e “underweight”) faced a 1.8x greater risk of dying from ill health compared to those with a “normal” BMI of 18.5-25.9. HOWEVER, (now this is where it gets interesting) patients with a BMI of 30+ (i.e. “obese” to “severely obese) faced just a 1.3x greater risk of dying from health issues. Why is this being ignored?!”
Taken from this article
Boris, I can already tell you, the anorexia that lives with us as an unwanted guest is having a freaking party right now. They are celebrating that you just reinforced that calories are a BAD thing and need to be controlled, measured and restricted.
You missed the mental health part of food Boris, and I am so deeply disappointed, furious and overwhelmed.
Perhaps I am directing some of the anger of living with an eating disorder at you, but I deserve to be angry, because I live with it, and this idiotic legislation made it worse.
The diet culture is toxic in the UK, and amongst teens. Do you know it causes the highest death rate in mental health conditions? Remember when we got Britain talking in lockdown? Well I am now shouting!
Do you know how ill you have to be to get support for an eating disorder?
We are talking really fricking ill.
Did you know a Grand Caesar Salad packed with goodness at Pizza Express has 700 calories in it, may as well have a Pizza though with 973 in hey?
Put simply, you got this wrong, and it highlights the total lack of understanding of health and nutrition in our government.
And my kid is a victim of that mistake.
Forever furious,
Jane